Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Books for the digital egalley in exchange for my honest review.

For fans of Agustina Bazterrica’s Tender is the Flesh. It paints an unsettling future vis a vis Orwell’s 1984 meets Black Mirror, but instead of just hyper surveillance, the government can choose to simply body swap you if you act out of turn.

I would have liked more show and less tell. There’s a little too much exposition and clunky dialogue. I could tell that the characters were talking for the reader when they should just be speaking to each other. A final polish would have been beneficial for this novel.

A really interesting addition to the dystopian subgenre.

Promising, super complicated and interesting book! At points it felt a little too chaotic but in all the author set out with a good idea, and then xe pulled it off great.

Womb City is a cyberpunk sci-fi horror novel set in a future Botswana were people can upload their consciousness into different bodies, thereby extending their lifespans. It explores themes of surveillance, criminality, class, citizenship, reproductive justice, motherhood, memory, and body autonomy. Between that premise and the stunning cover, I was so excited to read this and expected that it might be a 5 star read.

Unfortunately, the execution did not deliver what I hoped for. I was hooked in the beginning but the plot quickly shifted to that of a crime thriller with a lot of running around. I didn't feel connected to the characters and they delivered long monologues that cheapened the important messages of the book. With some clunky world-building and inconsistent pacing, I really had to push through to the end of this. I'm disappointed because the premise of this novel is genius but I think this needed a few more rounds of editing to tighten it up. I do want to read more from this author, because xe introduces ideas that appeal to me so much as someone who loves speculative fiction.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC copy.

The horrors of humanity blended with a high concept technological dystopia, Tlotlo Tsamaase's Womb City focuses on the dangers of a high surveillance society and social/sexual inequities. Nelah Bogosi-Ntsu is a successful and lauded architect, married to a high ranking policeman, a member of a wealthy family and is trying to have a child. However, the marriage is loveless and controlling, tensions are high with her family, her firm is struggling in an economic downturn, she's suffered multiple miscarriages and she's having an affair.

To further complicate Nelah's life, her body is micro-chipped as a criminal, with her eyes recording all her actions that can be reviewed annually and she must do weekly check-ins with her husband to review what it captures. Despite this, she has managed to build a relationship with another man. As their relationship deepens they spend a wild night of chemical substances and driving that lead to them hitting someone. At this pivotal moment, they seek to protect themselves and kill the unfortunate victim. The next day Nelah's life begins to spiral out of control as the undead victim seeks revenge on Nelah and all that she loves. Can Nelah survive and save her loved ones? Or will she be forced to watch them die, before her turn arrives?

The complexity of the world is further expanded by the body hopping possibilities. Each citizen is entitled to multiple lifespans, but the demand for bodies is much higher than the supply. Added to that is when consciousness transfers between the bodies, memories of past lives are lost. There can also be decades between lifespans with consciousnesses languishing in a virtual ether. Bodies can be surrendered by choice or due to crimes, with part of the punishment requiring the body to be microchipped to prevent future crimes. There are set rules with how this all should operate, but wealth can still rewrite them as desired.

Womb City is a detailed, realized world. Through Nelah we see a privileged perspective beset by challenges. Some of Nelah's problems are of her own making, but others are results beyond her control. She is tested by the events of the book, but will she hold to her family and be the protector of her unborn child? Or will she succumb to the impossible choice of saving herself at the risk of all she holds dear?

It builds slowly, but once the crises is reached, it is a compellingly paced thriller that twists and turns to an unexpected resolution. Beware the blood.

Womb City is an interesting mix of science fiction, the supernatural and horror, served with a generous dollop of social criticism. This is a frenzied, tension-filled, novel that takes place in a near-future Botswana, where citizens, especially female citizens, are microchipped and monitored for criminal behaviour, and where it is routine to upload one's individual memory and personality to a new body.

The main character is architect Nelah Bogosi-Ntsu, who is in her third body. She is desperate for a child, and she and husband Elifasi finally resort to a Wombcubator, where a daughter is being cultivated for the couple. Nelah is articulate and angry about the many limitations society imposes on women, at one point declaring, "I wish they'd stop seeing me as a woman, and maybe then I'd be free to be what I want." One example of oppression includes the regular monitoring of Nelah by her husband for 'purity", as Nelah's previous body was a criminal--or so she is told.

Nelah is a sympathetic character through the first half of the novel, but becomes less so after she takes an old flame for her lover. This triggers a disastrous car accident that sees another woman killed. The dead woman returns to wreck havoc, and to recruit Nelah in her plan to expose corruption in high places.

One strongpoint of this book is the well-thought out social implications of "mind transfer reincarnation", as the uploading of one's consciousness into new bodies is called. Some of Nelah's new family accept her as their lost daughter--but others don't. What happens if your former body was a criminal, or you want a white body in order to immigrate to the West? This is speculative fiction at its best, from a much-needed African perspective.

The horror aspect was also effective. I'm still not sure of what I think of the book's conclusion, in which Nelah's rage, and the power of a sacred water hole, transforms her into a goddess. Talk about deus/dea ex machina. I did enjoy this competently written exploration of gender, and of women's and nonbinary people's anger at patriarchal oppression. If you enjoy the dystopian novels, or the work of surrealist writers like Irenosen Okojie, you will enjoy Womb City, too.

While I had high hopes for this as it's certainly unique, unfortunately, I got lost and overwhelmed. This isn't my usual genre which is likely why I wasn't a fan. Ultimately, I dnf. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I expect that others will really enjoy it.

I really wanted to like this book and it touches on some important issues but I think the author could have written three book from these ideas than forcing them all into one book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 22%

Man, I'm so sad to DNF this because I was so so excited to read this! I mean, the synopsis compares this to Get Out and made it sound super exciting!

But I'm sad to report that this felt like an unedited first draft. There were so many typos, awkward phrases, and run-on sentences that took me out of the story. I mean, look at these sentences!

- I make more money than him, and he says I keep rubbing it in his face, wrongfully accusing me of doing so.
- At the table in my parents’ backyard during our lunch is my parents, Limbani and his wife.
- To obtain citizenship in a European country through the body-hop visa, one must revoke their native body and identity, let their consciousness be placed in the application filing system, which can take weeks to months to decades to get approval or rejection, in addition to this shitload of requirements they must provide evidence of a years’ worth of financial ability to live in that foreign place.
- In the years after marriage, the pressures from work inflicted cracks into our perfect lives: me, working months way from home in countries with visa restrictions that wouldn’t allow me to bring my husband along as my firm’s reputation grew to great success while his stagnant position at work threatened his pride, the more successful I became, the more his balls shriveled, and the quieter he became, reserving himself to the teeth of his thoughts while his glances glazed me with a sweet poison.

And many more. Yes, I am reading an advanced copy, but it's honestly ridiculous that the publisher released a copy in such a state. This author deserves way better than this. I really hope this is edited a lot more prior to final release.

But it's not just the technical structure of the sentences. The world building is just constant info dumps, but it's all tell and no show. The narrative keeps repeating the body-hopper / lifespan timeline and rules over and over again, but it seems slightly different each time, so I keep getting confused. Nelah says that the system is unjust but since the rules seem very inconsistent (it seems random who keeps their memories from previous bodies), I don't actually see that happening. Nelah says she's called names and judged but the reader doesn't actually see any of that.

And the commentary on the system just feels transplanted from our current world to this one, especially since there is no explanation as to how the world became this way, and how different countries operate. Nelah says that Americans and Britons can more easily transfer to Motswana bodies than vice versa, but why? What are the geopolitics of this world like? I really just have to assume that it's the same as the real world for these statements to make sense. But then other parts don't match up with that assumption. According to this 2015 study*, only about 2-9% of the people in prison around the globe are women, with the lowest proportion being in African countries. So if the world of this book is indeed the future of ours (which is not clarified in the first 20% at least), how did they go from 91%+ men in prison to less than 50%?

* https://www.bbk.ac.uk/news/global-statistics-of-female-prisoners-published

And I keep getting distracted thinking about the implications of a society where everyone jumps from body to body, especially if they lose their memories, that are pretty much completely ignored by the text. At one point, Nelah says she gets angry thinking about "White souls" inhabiting the bodies of Batswana. But if that person is on their third lifespan, are they really still white? Do people still retain their original identities even when they're on their 5th body? The implications are really interesting but there are so many other facets to the world building (microchipping, AI predicting criminality, Wombcubators, sexism, etc...) that the author doesn't have time to talk about these implications. As I've seen other reviewers say, I think the story would have been better if it focused on just one of these facets and really dug deep into that.

And this is not even touching on the characterization or plot (not much of either at this point).

I think this author has some good ideas, but I really hope xe gets the editing xe deserves from xer publisher for future books. I'd love to read more speculative fiction by African authors!

Womb City is set in a dystopian future Botswana, where consciousness can be transferred between bodies, extending one's life to hundreds of years. Of course, this makes bodies a commodity - and some are worth more than others. Nelah, the protagonist, is living a difficult life - a struggling business, a husband whose mood is constantly changing, she struggles with fertility, and her body, having committed a crime before she was the occupier, is being monitored.

This novel deals with a lot of complex but important themes, the main ones being bodily autonomy and the patriarchy. I found the story to be unique and compelling. I was NOT expecting the sudden genre-change from sci-fi to horror, but didn't hate it.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, as well as the messages of the book. However, there were issues with the pacing - a lot of the book felt drawn out, especially some of the world-building elements, and a lot of long monologues from all of the characters that are inserted to explain in laborious detail what is going on really takes you out of the action. I wish that some of these moments were left more to the reader to interpret, rather than being force-fed this information. Other parts of the book, especially the ending, felt very rushed. Many of the characters were not well fleshed out. With that said, I still enjoyed this story, and it would make an excellent film or limited series.

Womb City has an interesting and intriguing premise and world but sadly it didn't work for me. It was too slow moving and repetitive for my liking which is why I'm DNFing at 22%. Even though I want to know what happens I don't have the will to continue reading it.

The book was off to an interesting start right away with issues of biotechnology and surveillance, feminism, male control, and bodily autonomy.
Things pick up as the story goes, but there's just too much going on.
Lots of world-building and info dumping.
The MC is not necessarily likeable, but is undoubtedly pretty badass.
About halfway there's a pretty abrupt shift toward more of a body horror story.
By the time we reach the ending it feels like a totally different book.

The ideas are very intriguing, but there are too many layered upon each other-- they end up suffocating each other, becoming an overwhelming, forced-feeling mishmash at times, rather than getting the clarity they deserve.

This is a promising debut-- it's just A LOT.
In the end, its a futuristic, feminist story about policed women refusing to accept societal oppression, and their consequential violent reactions.

Maybe it's just me, but I struggled to connect with this one. Looking forward to see what others think!

"Women should not always have to die. Girls should not be born into death".

As far as I could tell Womb city is Tlotlo Tsamaase's first full length novel. It's about the patriarchy and how far men are willing to go to keep their women compliant (spoiler not spoiler: pretty damn far). It's unabashedly the novel Xe wanted to write. It isn't afraid to be weird, to discuss difficult topics. And I sincerely applaud to that.

Given the premise and the Trigger Warning list in the beginning I expected the book to be more dark than it was and less action-focused. Action was well-written and fast and I enjoyed my time with it. It somehow manages not only to merge consents from different genres but also make it all sound coherent. I appreciate the fact that most of the lore we learn through Nelah's comments to the world around her and not just info dumps. It's always nice to see fiction play with readers' expectations.

I can't say much about plot without spoilers. It's pretty much a character-focused book. I appreciated the journey Nelah and other characters went through and her character development.

Thank you Netgalley and Erewhon Books for providing me with digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the start of this book, but it just kept going in too many directions and had too many elements for one book. There were a ton of awesome ideas, but we just ended up focusing too much on those maaaany ideas and world building rather than the characters and the emotional impact of events. I definitely see potential in this author and will be interested in reading more of their work in the future, this one was just a miss for me

Womb City takes place in a future where minds can be transferred to new bodies, and where a patriarchal system has created a society that seems like heaven to some, and yet hides hideous truths beneath the surface. It's cyberpunk, it's science fiction, it's a thriller, it's a dystopian vision, and in the end, it transcends any easy genre-classification and goes beyond all those labels. The book really finds its pace and footing once it deals with a horrific murder and its aftermath, and the conclusion to the story goes somewhere I did not expect at all when I began reading.

Initial Thoughts:

This was such a creative story! But ultimately, it was bogged down by convoluted ideas that didn't quite seem to connect with each other without extensive explanations and talking at the reader.

Detailed Review:

There were way too many elements and influences from various media (Minority Report, a bit of Handmaid's Tale if you squint, The Final Cut [that Robin Williams sci-fi movie], insert generic horror story with a Final Girl, insert another horror story with an evil sentient creature) which, when combined together, came to create a Frankenstein's monster of a novel.

With that being said, I was pretty disappointed with this novel. It started out well enough, with familiar sci-fi elements such as an overarching government/police state that's patriarchal in nature. The misogyny was disgusting. I felt terrible for the FMC, Nelah, and was rooting for her for the first quarter to one-third of the book.

But then, everything went downhill after that. The author threw in so many ideas all at once that it was really difficult to keep track of each sci-fi concept. The explanation for the body hopping scheme went on and on.

I thought I understood the basics of body hopping (souls are transferred to another body when their "life" expires for a total of ~200 years on Earth; criminal souls/minds are imprisoned forever; etc.), but the author kept adding more and more details to the point where I had no idea what the purpose of body hopping was anymore.

Nelah was also an irritating FMC. I stopped having any sympathy for her after I realized that she wanted so badly to prescribe to traditional societal values (having a husband and child) while having an affair on the side.

She kept complaining about her husband's misogyny, and the society's misogyny in general, but not once did she think about leaving her husband. They're an excellent example of that couple who has a baby to fix their relationship. I was sick and tired of it less than halfway into the story.

As a masochist, I love reading about futuristic misogynist societies in sci-fi stories, but this was done so inexpertly without any subtlety that it was hard to root for the FMC and her terrible situation. She seemed privileged enough that she could've just left her marriage and strike out on her own. But nope. All she did was complain and cheat.

After the midpoint, the story's ideas seriously became too convoluted to the point where Nelah and her lover, Jan, seemed to talk at the reader to explain what was going on. It felt really patronizing and just plain odd to read.

The story does pick up after the 30% mark though, but the first 30% felt like such an uphill slog. After that, the tone changes completely and at times becomes a horror thriller, with strange lulls in between for exposition and character building.

And the explanation for why Moremi wanted revenge? The entire thing plunged right into straight up fantasy that it took me out of the story. I was expecting to stay strictly within the sci-fi horror genre, so it felt like the author couldn't come up with a logical explanation for why certain things were happening.

And honestly, Moremi's story sounded way more interesting than Nelah's story. At least I could sympathize with her.

I don't know. This entire story was very creative, but ultimately, it ended up being a frustrating read.

Thank you to Erewhon Books and NetGalley for this arc.

This book is wild, and not really in a good way.

I am so disappointed. I was really excited when I got this ARC, the cover art is horrifyingly perfect, and I’ve really been impressed with other recent work by African authors, so it breaks my heart a little to write this.

From the publisher, and what I was hoping for:
“This genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body.”

What we got: a mishmash of an overly complicated backstory and world that wasted massive amounts of time and space, pulling the reader out of the action. Long Bond villain-esk monologues to try and make this convoluted story make sense. Preaching passages to try and make sure the reader gets the deeper message, which actually cheapens the message. Really weird simplistic dialog, threadbare characters, double and triple and quadruple double crosses that are just ridiculous, and a voice that is well strange… I’m putting an example of one short passage in the photos, yeah so many womb related imagery, that was just kind of gross.

I really wanted to DNF this book early on, but I held on to finish. All in the hope that maybe there was an anti-colonial or some other theme that would tie up the earlier roughness into something coherent and challenging, but no it was just hard to read and the ending was not satisfying or original.

Womb City is author Tlotlo Tsamaase’s debut novel; having previously read xer short fiction in a few anthologies (Africa Risen and The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction) I was very happy to read xer first longer work.

It is certainly a genre-bender – what starts as a dystopian sci-fi with themes of surveillance and biotech takes a turn toward fast-paced horror, with the end of the book feeling like an entirely different text than the beginning. It is also ambitious – there are a lot of themes here, and strong commentary on bodily autonomy, the relationship between memory and identity, and the ways that those harmed by patriarchy also serve to maintain it. I liked a lot about this. What didn’t quite work for me was how jarring the shift in tone is, and some of the pacing; toward the end, the pace was so fast that it definitely felt like a few too many ideas were squished in for the page count. Some parts felt a bit too information-heavy – the world-building is fascinating and complex, but in some places explained too clearly to the reader, resulting in ‘info-dump’ that often wasn’t necessary and disrupted the dialogue. All that said, though, I found the plot exciting and couldn’t put it down.

Content warnings: pretty much all of them – body horror, gore, blood, violence, injury detail, death, murder, gun violence, rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, drug abuse, death of a parent, suicide, misogyny, sexism, homophobia, medical content, medical trauma, human trafficking.

Thank you to Erewhon Books, Kensington Books, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

This book had so much promise and it went in 400 different directions by the end. I could not finish the last 50 pages because of the utter ridiculousness that occurred in “wrapping up” loose ends. A huge ick.

Rating "Womb City" by Tlotlo Tsamaase was a challenging task for me as it didn't neatly fit into a specific star category, ultimately settling at 2.5 stars.

The book traverses multiple themes, including equality, feminism, and individuality in a society driven by collective actions for the greater good. It commences as a dystopian sci-fi narrative, later transitioning into a somewhat absurd religious horror tale. This genre shift, however, felt abrupt, making the reading experience somewhat disjointed. The characters, particularly Nelah, suffered from this sudden change, rendering her two-dimensional, and her thought process throughout the story lacked consistency.

The challenge of depicting consciousness in other bodies translated into a somewhat nightmarish reading experience, circling back on itself and diluting the meaning of the narrative.

The writing left some desires unmet, as moments that could have been enriched with explanations and nuanced plot development were overshadowed by mundane expressions. Urgency was lacking in certain parts where it should have prevailed. The plot twist involving Nelah's husband felt insignificant due to insufficient prior investment in his character. With a predominant focus on Jan and Nelah, her husband became a mere background figure.

The book's length and ambitious inclusion of various elements might have contributed to its struggles. It could potentially have benefited from a more extended format, perhaps as a multi-sequel series, to delve deeper into its complex themes.

Womb City was definitely one of the most unique books I read this year. This futuristic society in Botswana has a very low crime rate but many of its citizens are under heavy surveillance. In this world, people can body hop, trading their old bodies for new ones to extend their lifetimes and create new opportunities for themselves. This brings forth discussions among the characters about race and gender. Though one can change their outward appearance by inhabiting another’s body, their soul seems to be tied to their original self.

This books world building was very complex and there was a lot to take in at the start of the book. By following the life of the main character Nelah, the reader learns about the challenges she faces as a microchipped woman who is controlled by her husband. The microchip, which allows the government to monitor her actions to ensure she is an upstanding citizen, limits her autonomy. Though she is a successful hard working individual, her own body holds her back from true happiness. When she decides to have a child, she hopes this will allow her to find purpose in life.

This book is heavy with dialogue between characters and inner monologue by the main character. I enjoyed many of the discussions between the characters as they worked together despite their clashing perspectives of the world they lived in. However, I do find that there was a lot of information to take in about this world and it was challenging to read at first. It took a while for me to be able to understand how this society worked. I found it interesting that the reader was given the chance to see how even in a futuristic society, people are still struggling with similar issues we face today. It brings forth the discussion that despite technological advancements and the ability to extend humans lifetimes, there is still inequality. Even in this world, where body hopping exists, there is still the ideal body one works to inhabit to achieve autonomy.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.